KNBR Conversation: Jeremy Newberry, former 49er

Updated 11:42 pm, Saturday, May 24, 2014

Jeremy Newberry, helped off the field in 2001, missed one game in his first five seasons.

Jeremy Newberry, helped off the field in 2001, missed one game in his first five seasons.

Photo: Michael Macor, SFC

KNBR Conversation: Jeremy Newberry, former 49er

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An edited transcript of the conversation between former 49ers lineman Jeremy Newberry - who is part of a class action suit alleging a culture of pharmaceutical drug use in the NFL - and KNBR's Gary Radnich and Kate Scott:

Radnich: I want to have you tell the story ... When you were preparing to go on the field, what the medical staff would do to you, I think it paints a picture of what you're suing for.

Newberry: From game to game it was a little bit different, but the common aspect to pretty much every single game, I would say 95 percent of my career, was a shot called Toradol.

The guideline recommendations for Toradol say you're not supposed to take Toradol while you're on any other anti-inflammatory, and I was always on another anti-inflammatory. You're not supposed to take it more than five consecutive times - I've taken probably close to a couple hundred shots of it in my career.

I've taken handfuls of Vicodins, had five, six, seven other shots included with the shot of Toradol just to play for a game. Then I would come in at halftime and sometimes get shot up again, and take more Vicodin, and take more Vicodin on the field just to try to get me through some of these games.

The long-term effect ended up tearing up my kidneys. I have Stage 3 kidney failure from all the shots and the painkillers and the anti-inflammatories.

Radnich: Did you not know what you were taking at the time?

Newberry: I didn't know the - I mean, I asked, "What's this going to do to me? What are the long-term effects of taking these drugs?" The answer was, "...This Toradol will cause you to bruise more." ... If someone had ever told me, "Jeremy, you could end up with kidney failure if you take this stuff ..." I would have never, ever done that stuff

Radnich: The comeback - to paint what some of our audience members say - is ... you rolled the dice, you got the money, but you're going to have to struggle the rest of your life.

Newberry: So that's OK for me to die at 40 years old, or need a kidney transplant at 40 years old because I played the game of football for entertainment? ... Internal medicine, and the way these drugs are administered, needs to get out of this game of football. I've got nephews, I've got a ton of buddies with sons playing football, I've got a little son myself. If I don't do something to change this drug culture that is affecting so many former players and future players ... this thing is going to continue on. It's been the same way since the 1960s - it's now 2014, and it's the same exact drug culture. They haven't moved on from what was acceptable then. It's not OK.

Radnich: Could you have said "no" and remained in the league?

Newberry: That's a good question. What would have happened if every time I had an injury I had said, "No, I don't want to do it." It's all speculation from here, but it doesn't really matter to this case.

Radnich: Who do you blame?

Newberry: I blame every one of those team doctors that looked at those blood tests and gave me a clean bill of health every single year, saying, "You're fine to go, you're good to go." They never brought to my attention that my kidneys were starting to fail in 2004, 2005.